8/31/2009 @ 11:38AM

Disney Joins The Comic Club

With its purchase of
Marvel Entertainment
this morning, the
Walt Disney Company
grabbed Hollywood’s Holy Grail, a superhero franchise–and not just one.
Disney
has had great success with movies from Pixar and the Pirates of the Caribbean series, but by buying Marvel,
Disney
instantly has access to the company that has created some of Hollywood’s biggest money makers.

For about $4 billion, or $50 a share (Marvel shareholders will get $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745
Disney
shares for each Marvel share they own), the studio has wrapped up ownership of the most valuable roster of proven moneymakers in movies including Iron Man, the Hulk, Spider-Man and X-Men, among the 5,000 characters in the Marvel universe.

It will likely roil all of Hollywood’s studios. It remains to be seen if future sequels (and prequels) will be produced at Disney or elsewhere.
Sony’s
three Spider Man films reaped $1.1 billion from the domestic box office alone. Four X-Men films did $787 million for
News Corp.’s
20th Century Fox’s, and two movies based on the Incredible Hulk character raked in nearly $170 million at U.S. theaters for General Electric’s Universal Studios. Iron Man was one of last summer’s big hits, earning $320 million for Paramount. The second installment of the franchise is due out next year.

“We believe that adding Marvel to Disney’s unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation,” Disney’s President and Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger said in a statement this morning.

Ike Perlmutter, the current chief executive at Marvel, will continue to oversee the company within Disney. “Disney is the perfect home for Marvel’s fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses,” said Perlmutter.

The deal has already been approved by both boards but is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Act. Marvel’s shareholders must still approve the deal.

Shares of Disney were down 1.43%, to $26.40, and shares of Marvel were up 10.20%, to $48.83.

It’s a sweet premium for Marvel shareholders, the end of a long and profitable ride. Though the company’s been battered through the years by a Ronald Perlman takeover and an ugly court battle with founder Stan Lee over copyrights, shares have been among the best performing in entertainment in the last decade since bottoming around a buck in 2000. Iger’s betting there’s still more where that came from. Welcome to the club.